ABSTRACT
The King’s Evil, or Queen’s Evil when a Queen is on the throne, is tuberculous lymphadenopathy of the neck, commonly known as scrofula, and is a disease of the lymph glands of the neck. The illustration from Queen Mary’s Manual, 1553–4, shows the Queen touching a scrofulous boy with both hands directly applied to the affected part of the neck. This has also been described in a letter written in 1556 which stated that after the Queen had pressed with her hands on the spot where the sore was ‘… she then made the sick people come to her again and taking a gold coin called an angel, she touched the place where the evil showed itself, signed it with the Cross and passed a ribbon through the hole which had been pierced in [the coin], placing one of them round the neck of each of the patients and making them promise never to part with that coin, save in case of extreme need’.
